87 Weds. in G.R. – warmest ever for March

1:30 AM – I was on WOOD radio (AM 1300 and 106.9 FM) at 7:06 AM Thurs. AM to talk about the heat and what’s ahead for the summer. At 7 AM we had a shower up in NW Oceana Co. 87 deg. Weds. in G.R. – warmest EVER in March and 40 degrees above the average high of 47 for March 21! As far as I can tell, we’ve never had a day in G.R. with a high temperature 40 degrees warmer than average. Prior to today, the earliest it had ever reached 87 in G.R. was April 26, 1915! So this was more than a month ahead of that. It was 88 in downtown Kalamazoo and in Midland. Here’s a list of regional high temperatures from SW Michigan, E Michigan, N. Michigan and the central and western U.P. It was 84 today in Munising (warmer than any place in Hawaii) and 81 in Marquette. It was even 80 in Timmons, Ontario. The month is now 17.2 degrees warmer than average (warmer than an average April!) One more warm day today (low-mid 80s, cooler near Lake Michigan), then rain moves in. We do have a chance of a shower today, but a better chance of rain tonight. Temperatures will be back to a high of 70 on Friday and low-mid 60s over the weekend, still well above normal. Picture 1 is the Holland Pier (look at all the people, boats, jet skis!) by Tom DeVette, then tulips in bloom from Cort Scholten (thanks for all the comments on the blog) and finally daffodils by Sue DeVos – pictures from my facebook page. The 83-degree reading in G.R. on Tuesday made March 20, 2012 the warmest day EVER in March in G.R. (eclipsed on Weds.) Kalamazoo reached 84, and the Michigan Regional Airport in Holland peaked at 85. Traverse City soared to 86 (they get a couple degrees of downslope warning with a south wind) and they were 10 degrees warmer than Brownsville TX. Traverse City was 34 degrees warmer than Chihuahua, Mexico, where the high was only 52 (average for them is 79). On the warm side: 80 Burlington VT, 81 Concord NH. It was 79 way up at Kapuskasing and Timmons, Ontario. Tucson AZ held in the 50s for the 2nd day in a row. Marfa TX reached a high of only 50. 10″ of snow fell in the mountains around Taos and Santa Fe NM. Rainfall: 6.17 Waco TX, 5.43″ Fort Hood, 4.49″ Dallas, 4.04″ Fort Worth, 3.13″ Tyler, 3.66 Joplin MO, 2.84 Fort Smith AR. Here’s SPC’s severe weather outlooks. The Canadian NAEFS model keeps us warmer than average into early April. Here’s CPC’s 8-14 day outlook shifting the core of the warmth west into the Plains – I’d agree with that. For anyone who gets Weatherbell Premium, check out Joe D’Aleo’s article on the recent Coronal Mass Ejection, warming in the upper atmosphere and the build-up of the heat ridge over North America. He ties in the recent strong earthquakes in Japan and Mexico and shows the past (coincidence or not) solar activity with earthquakes and heat ridges. There was a major solar storm before the 2004 Indonesia e-quake and Indian Ocean Tsunami. This is speculation and not fact, but interesting nonetheless. Here’s a surface map (temperature in the upper left of each station plot).

Marquette had 47 inches of snow on the ground at the National weather service on March 4th and March 18th they were down to nothing. Now that is a fast meltoff. I think the entire U.P. except for areas up near Houghton to the north are snow free now.

I was up in the Copper country last week for a vacation and there was an unbelievable amount of snow left in Calumet especially but just going 10 miles south to Houghton the snow depth dropped to 8 inches. Going south to Baraga there was still some snow but as soon as you get to Marquette there was nothing on the ground. This was on March 14th. The grass is starting to show a little green tint to it here in Escanaba.